Mind and body are in constant conversation with each other via the central nervous system – a huge collection of nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

The Vagus Nerve is a cranial nerve which originates in the brain stem and travels all the way through the body in many directions, via the spine and out to the face, neck, heart, lungs, the abdomen including the stomach, spleen, intestines, colon, liver and kidneys.

It’s sometimes described as a communication superhighway, inspired by its wandering around the body. The Vagus nerve is implicated in mood regulation, immune responses, digestion and heart rate.

It represents the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system (which is responsible for rest and digest capacities)

It’s is made up of more than 100,000 nerve fibres.

20% of these are “efferent” fibres: sending motor signals from the brain to the body, to tell it to do something, like blinking.

80% are “afferent” fibres: carrying sensory info from the body and environment, to the brain, such as in touch or temperature.

This helps to explain why achieving a sense of calm and safety anytime, but especially under threat, comes more easily via body practices like #breathwork #movement or #grounding using the #senses like #humming #taste #touch and #mindfulmusic

The vagus nerve is said to be working at its best when we’re in a #safeandsocial state – calm, and connected to others. How we all wish we were sitting pretty up there all the time?! But it’s completely normal to move in and out of this state regularly through the day.

You can work to improve your “vagal tone” by learning to come back to a state of calm following activation.

Next blog will explore some of my favorite ways to do just that.

Image by Katja Bartsch @katja_m_b